It all starts in your head…
We hear so much in tango about connection and it’s true, if you don’t have connection the dance will not be pleasurable as each partner will feel frustrated with missed steps, timing, etc., but where and when does connection start?
Most people step into embrace while still adjusting their clothing, talking, looking around the dance floor, in other words not fully present and engaged with only their partner. There is a wonderful opportunity here to pause, breathe into your partner and notice how their exhalation feels against your body, to let the music lift you into the next breath and then into your first tentative steps.
As a follower I can tell immediately what the tanda will feel like in that first 10 seconds, if the leader takes this precious moment to draw me in – I am captivated and eager to follow his every breath. For those who grab my hand while looking over my shoulder distractedly I often notice that the dance is somewhat stiff, tense as I find it difficult to ease into and trust this person who is moving in a solo act and dragging me along for the ride.
I saw this posted in Facebook today and loved it immediately – it articulates beautifully how the most important aspects of tango are often the subtlest as well.
In this excerpt from Tango Truisms we explore the pre-tanda mindset and how clear intention produces clear results.
The ‘Leading’ Mantra.
If you are a leader this post is probably the single most important post you will ever want to read: “My mind, in HER feet, on the beat, to the pauses, within the phrases”. While this simple, but clearly disjointed sentence, is seemingly deceptive in it’s simplicity, it has far reaching implications! This should be EVERY lead’s mantra BEFORE they step on the floor.
Let’s examine the phrase.
“My mind” refers to having a very clear idea in your mind of what is ABOUT to be led.
Not a vague idea or series of ideas but a crystal clear idea. And frequently Leads don’t have a clear idea more than a step at a time… in turn creates a ‘muddy’ representation from a visual standing as well as from a musical standing. In essence, this idea is all about being crystal clear in your thoughts as a Lead. If you’re not clear, then the Follower can’t be clear in their execution! Therefore a ‘muddy’ dance that wanders all over the floor, and more importantly all over the beat!
“In her feet” which refers to not the Lead’s feet but the Follower’s feet. We, as leads, don’t give a rats damn what the Lead’s feet are doing but rather what the Follower’s feet are doing! At the same time, this also employs a noted skill of Proprioception. Which is NOT looking but feeling where the Follower is in space and in time.
And one more, “In her feet” also refers to the execution of technique from the Follower’s position. We don’t care what they do, but HOW and WHEN they do. Which should be expeditiously concise, controlled, and without tension, force, or rigidity, but within the realm of what was ASKED in a TIMELY fashion.
“On the beat” means that the Lead in this case is responsible for placing the Follower ON BEAT and not themselves and there is a radical difference between the two.
“to the Pauses”, this one is probably the single most important of the phrase itself. Why ? Because most people don’t hear the pauses, and yet it is the musical pause that creates STRUCTURE in the dance. Without the pause, you’d be running around the line of dance. The pause is there for 3 reasons, a.) to reset the couple. b.) to change vocabulary and adornment choices. c.) to create a latticework of structure in what you’re doing. There is an order to how we want to do things. We want to accentuate the ‘story’ of the song through vocabulary, and that begins with hearing the pauses and hitting them! “within the phrases” refers to musical phrasing or in this case ‘tango’ phrasing…there is a shorthand to some tango vocabulary that can literally create a specific feel, and we want to accentuate this idea. Each pause IS the ending of one phrase and the beginning of the next, and as such we want to start to think of our vocabulary choices as accentuating these phrases to tell a STORY!
©2015 Tango Truisms.
View the accompanying video here:
video ➤ http://bit.ly/1028-LeadingMantra
Now go and try this at your next milonga and see if you can feel the difference. I suspect you will find yourself floating on a cloud as your follower is smiling all the way back to her seat :~)